<p>What quare said.</p>
<p>If you want to study music at a Conservatory level next year, DO NOT apply to Oberlin college in the first round of ED. Admission to the Conservatory for voice is highly selective, particularly if you happen to be a (female) soprano. (In the very unlikely event that you are a good male soprano, your odds could be considerably better at schools, like Oberlin, that have an active Early Music program.) Given your stats, the odds of being accepted by the College in the ED round are probably much greater than the odds of being accepted by the Conservatory unless your voice is phenomenal. All-state is nice, but Oberlin rejects dozens of applicants each year who made it into All-state three or four times. I know at least three such singers who did not make it past the pre-screening round and another (a tenor, the most in-demand standard voice part) who made it past pre-screening but not the live audition.</p>
<p>Not being accepted by the Conservatory is not considered sufficient cause to back out of an ED acceptance at the College. Backing out anyway could cause problems for you when applying elsewhere and it can also cause problems later on for others applying to Oberlin from your high school.</p>
<p>Realize also that you cannot declare as a BA music major through the College until the start of your second year and you will have to audition into a teacher’s studio at that time.</p>
<p>If you are accepted into the Conservatory but not the College, it is still possible to enroll in the Double Degree program by taking two electives from the college your first year (this is standard for most Conservatory curricula and you would normally be taking classes in Italian through the College as a first year voice major anyway). If you do well enough in those classes to get the teachers to write a recommendation for you (it has to be two different teachers, and possibly two different departments) then acceptance into the College side of the Double Degree program at the start of your second year is pretty straightforward and you can still finish both degrees in five years if you work at it.</p>
<p>Being accepted into the Double Degree program from the College side is possible but much more difficult because you still have to audition for a place in a teacher’s studio along with the next year’s entering class.</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to submit your application for the Conservatory as early as possible while working on an RA admission to the college. If you are ready, you may wish to audition on the Early Review weekend in December, for which acceptances are not binding and you still have until May 1 to decide. If you think that a couple of more months of preparation would really improve your audition, then shoot for the regular auditions in the late January to early March time frame. If you want to audition live on campus (usually considered the best option if you live within a reasonable distance) then you will have to submit a pre-screening recording. </p>
<p>If accepted by the Con during Early Review, you would in theory still have time to submit the College application under ED2. If you plan to do that, make sure that you have all of the paperwork set to go in advance because you may get the Con acceptance only shortly before your high school has its Christmas break (mid-December notification sometimes turns out to be an optimistic estimate) and the ED2 stuff is all due on January 2. It may not be possible to get your high school guidance department or your teachers to mail out anything during that brief span. Even the RA deadline is not much later (January 15) so you will want to have things set to go.</p>
<p>You should, of course, be applying to other programs at the same time because admission to an auditioned program is never a sure thing.</p>